Sometimes I do in depth articles or long lists of ways to increase your profits.

Other times it’s to your benefit to learn a profit booster you can use ANYTIME.

That’s what I’m going to share today.

Here’s the phrase you need to learn.

“What else?”

Here’s how we’re going to apply it all throughout our website.

You put up a squeeze page to get people to subscribe to your list. On the next page many people simply say thank you for subscribing and they tell you to check your email to confirm and receive the free gift you promised.

“What else can you do here?”

Add a special offer here. It could be a discount or some other bonus. After someone subscribes, say thank you for subscribing, but also tell them here is a special we only make available to new subscribers. Depending on what you’re offering, you may produce a 5% to 20% sales rate on this page (lower ticket items such as $50 or less).

I’ve also found an extra benefit to doing this here. If you can get the first sale quickly from a new subscriber, you’re going to find they’re worth much more to you in the long-term as well. They’re not just a freebie seeker at this point. They’re a buyer. Huge difference between those two classifications.

Even better if you can get a 2nd sale from them…
After they buy this first product, what else?

You can do an immediate upsell after they purchase (you could continue this through multiple upsells but you will find quickly there is a point where it is too much in one spot). You also will want to put an offer on the thank you/download page after they purchase this first product.

What if you currently only have one product? Then that’s where you can review or recommend an affiliate product.

Let’s look at another application. You’ve done 6 follow-up email messages in your series. “What else can you add?” You can build an almost unlimited email sequence out (I quite a few clients with more than 1 year’s worth of follow-up messages in at least one of their autoresponders).

Note how when he followed one of the suggestions from the course (the thank you page offer), he achieved a 40% sales rate from his visitors. Wow Dave! He must have used a very good offer. Listen up to what he has to say…Read more

Why do some succeed where others fail? What about when it takes place in the exact same market? They both start a blog. They both send out emails. They both do search engine optimization and PPC. They both invest hours working on their business. They both follow that motto everyone pitches so heavily, “Just Take Action.”

Yet one makes money while the other just spins their wheels. Why? Here is a short video where I talk about the difference and the importance of content which is uniquely yours.Read more

I received an email this week and this is one of the comments they made:

“No one person or place has all the answers. So you find the “experts” to get your info. Then one contradicts the other on certain info and so you look somewhere else. Which adds to the ADD I’ve already suffering from. It’s a vicious cycle. Who do you trust?”

If you’re looking for ANYONE (and I do mean anyone including me) to give you all the answers, you’re already coming at it from the wrong angle. “Experts” are of course going to give different info and even contradict one another because they are each unique individuals. They have developed systems which work for them and their online business.

What works for one may not work for another. For example, I tested a video landing page that autoplayed. It worked great for me. A client I have in a professional market tested autoplaying on his video and it decreased his response. Do autoplay videos increase conversion or hurt conversion? You have to test it (test results so far indicate the more likely your customer is in an office or public environment the less likely autoplay will work for them).

I’ve said many times that I failed my way to success online. I found everything that didn’t work…and simply stumbled upon the best parts to keep using.

The ONLY way to get “all the answers” is to test in your market. Even then I’ve been doing this for more than 13 years and I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know anyone who does. I do know though if you try to combine 5 different systems from 5 different gurus you’ll simply end up with a MESS.

That’s kind of like pulling 5 recipes out of your cookbook and trying to mix them all together. Please don’t invite me over for dinner the day you try that.

My advice is to subscribe to a dozen people’s lists.

1. Now unsubscribe from anyone who only sends you ads and never provides any free content.
2. Look for more “honest” results. Now unsubscribe from everyone who is constantly telling you how easy it is to become a millionaire online.

We’ve now probably eliminated 7 or 8 of the lists you were on. For your final steps:

3. Look for people where you identify with their teaching style. You understand them and what they’re saying.
4. Find a model you want to commit time and effort to. If you’re not willing to honestly WORK hard for the next 3 to 6 months on this system, don’t waste your time.
5. Now focus and do it. Turn off all the other noise (I always tell clients not to buy anything you won’t use within the next week).

Now you have an option of what to pick and go after. I don’t know a single successful person who buys “everything” out there all the time and tries to listen to a multitude of sources. I can almost hear the objection now, “But if I only go after one system for the next 3 months, I’m not learning everything.”

No one said you had to learn everything. This isn’t college. There isn’t a professor about to give you an “F” next week. You have to simply learn a system you can follow!

Here’s something I’ve never really heard anyone talk about. After coaching many clients, I’ve found many clients THRIVE once they find the right connection for them. What do I mean when I say this?

I’m not going to name any names but let me give you a few “general examples” from actual clients. I had a client who produced several digital information products. No matter what we did in promotion they would just do OK. They never “thrived” in this business model even though it is one of my favorite models. The moment they decided to “consult” with others about the basics of their internet business (such as getting autoresponders and websites up), they immediately thrived. They hit their grove.

I’ve seen another client who had this with joint ventures. When doing joint ventures and recruiting affiliates, they did well. They made money. But it’s only when they drill in and focus on Adwords that they do extremely well (it fits their personality). Because they know they can make money with jvs they often waste their time here if I don’t watch them and keep them on track.

A third client claimed he was “burned out” even though his business was making more money than ever before. Knowing his situation I knew the real answer was he was getting bored because everything just worked smoothly. He needed a new challenge so we added a couple of things he has never done before to his schedule.

What works for one person is not a guaranteed fix for everyone else. That’s why I often publish “list” posts. When I publish a list of 21 Ways to Add More Subscribers, should you run out and do all of them next week? NO. You simply should pick and choose the right ones that fit you and your business.

If you tried to put all the strategies in place, you’d go insane. Or you’d simply run around in circles like the mouse trying to get the cheese.

I could call this post the “The Beginner’s Hamster Wheel” if I wanted Because that is what it is often like for beginners online. They chase expert #1 for a while, buy a bunch of products, and then move on to guru #2.

Let’s make this clear. You shouldn’t be looking to experts to give you ALL the answers. They simply point the path to take.

That’s all I can really do for you through an information product. I point out the path and then I warn about some of the dangerous I faced. “Look out for that alligator in the pond!”

Will they give you ALL the answers? Nope. Some answers in YOUR NICHE will only be found by testing. My product simply points the way and gives you a good foundation for getting there. Will you run into problems? Probably. Murphy’s Law is alive and well in technology.

When I buy a map, I don’t always expect everything to go smoothly on the way to my end location. On our way down to Florida we had a flat tire…and several other problems. Construction held us up for hours. It wasn’t the map’s fault. But we EVENTUALLY got to the destination. It’s the same with your business. There will be problems. There will be issues. And things won’t always go as planned.

Just keep moving and testing till you reach your destination. Get OFF the hamster wheel though of buying all the new product launches. You won’t get anywhere by going in circles!

Greg Nemer did some serious research to find a large ping list you can copy and paste in to WordPress. The ping list is simply a list of places your blog will notify whenever you post a new article. I have asked him a questino about the article and he assured me he did some very serious research and testing to make sure to give you the best list possible.

In addition he shows you how to copy and paste this new ping list into your WordPress setup. And he recommends a plug-in as well to make sure your blog doesn’t send out a ping when you simply update an article. Most complete post I’ve seen on the subject.

The Kidblogger is now at the ripe old age of 16. He put together an impressive list of 69 ways to build backlinks to your site. As we all know, a key element of ranking well on the search engines is the quality and quantity of your incoming links.

He covers the normal linkbait concepts and Web 2.0 lists. But he also adds quite a number of unique ideas to help you produce more links to your sites. Very good post to print out and use.60 Minute Naked Truth Salesletter Formula

Michel Fortin posted this 10 part 60 minute fast copywriting formula from Dean Jackson. It’s very easy to “struggle” over your sales copy and take what seems like forever to write it. This down and dirty quick writing formula can help you get the rough draft written.

Then you simply go back to the rough draft to edit and improve on it. Editing copy is SO MUCH EASIER than writing it from the beginning.

I know what it is like to be in debt. When I first started my internet business in 1996 I was up to my eyeballs in debt. I had creditors calling all the time. They suggested you borrow from someone else to pay them. They threatened. They even called my family members to tell them how in debt I was (which is illegal by the way). It was a nightmare. So I KNOW “Debt is slavery.”

This post is actually a book review, but it contains 10 important principles about money. One of the core ones I believe fully is, “Money Buys Freedom.” With money you have options and can live the Internet Lifestyle we talk about so much here.

You know you’ve found a good explanation on a subject once you say, “Is it really that simple?” You will look at this post and think that very question. He shares 5 reasons people buy…which cover the majority of purchases anyone will ever make from you online.

It’s easy to write articles that are overcomplicated. Finally, someone makes this subject very simple.

I’m not going to labor the point here as I’ve covered it at other times, but surveys are vital to making sure you provide exactly what your audience is looking for.

For example, since I was specifically looking for feedback of what to create in a coaching program, I will use the information provided to me in the survey I did this past week. I’ll combine that information with the personal knowledge I have working directly with clients. I’ll also look back at how products and services sold.

In other words, I don’t rely just on the survey, but it becomes a part of the decision making process along with live interviews of clients (the ones who’ve been in my coaching) and previous sales (real results). Many times the open ended questions of a survey can even give you the frustrations your market is experiencing…along with the exact wording to write in response to it at times.

I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who participated in my survey over the past week. You did an excellent job and provided a lot of useful information to me. I’ll include some portions below, while I keep a few details for myself at this time (I will be listening to the answers and don’t want to reveal too much about the service I’ll create out of it yet).

Some participants provided VERY DETAILED answers of what they’re most looking for and the experiences they’ve add in other coaching programs/workshops. THANK YOU. I appreciate it.

So what’s the shocker in the survey?

For me, it was the answer to the question, “What is your favorite type of training product?”

For my audience, NOTICE how much more popular online video is compared to all the other options. It’s twice as popular as eBook, and more than 3 times as popular as DVDs. I expected online video to win, but not to win by this much. And I didn’t expect the teleconferences to be this low on the response either.

If you add eBooks and physical books together you get close to the popularity of online video. But if we did that we should also add DVDs in with online video. Pushing the video format way ahead again.

I’ve often talked about how some people like written material, others audio, others video, and still others the live component. With my audience they like video best. Second is written material. Audio is 3rd down the list. Last are the live events.

I need to combine the above statements along with the answers to “What type of contact would you be most interested in for a coaching program?”

Multiple selections were allowed so the numbers don’t add up to 100% here.

The winner here…”PDF Lessons with Assignments” received 63.8% of the vote. Second place was very close with 51.1% as prerecorded video training. Live webinars were 34% so prerecorded was preferred but you can see just how popular video was here again.

Email support was much more popular than any type of one-on-one phone coaching. In fact, group teleconferences were preferred to one-on-one phone coaching. Good news for me as phone coaching is the most time intensive and it was not what most people were looking for.

Least popular was a one-on-one full day meeting in person, but it surprised me again that it came in at 11.3%. This would be a higher ticket type of service and I can see that more than 10% of my audience is actually interested in it (and I’ve never offered anything like this before).

Note: Here is a point to mention with surveys. It would be easy to misinterpret this answer and say “People aren’t interested in this.” It was the least popular, but OF COURSE it is less popular. Immediately you know it is going to cost more than the other formats. And with 11.3% possibly interested in it, that is something that could be included from time to time as a higher ticket service. If everyone voted this most popular, there is no way I’d be willing to do this service with that many clients, but if there is a core element who wants it…it becomes a possibility.

Another surprise occurred for me in the “coaching subjects” section. I thought “list building” would be the winner, but it came in 2nd place. The winner was going from small profits to 6 or 7 figures. Obviously for MY AUDIENCE, many of them have made a few sales…and want to go to a higher income level.

Last place was another surprise because I was actually considering it as a possibility for a coaching program. “Earning your First Profits as an Affiliate” was dead last here. While a few were interested in getting started in affiliate marketing, it had the least popularity on the survey. This saved me from making a possible mistake in going that direction.

Open Ended Questions

Often the open ended questions are the ones which reveal the real wants and frustrations in the market.

Of course I’m not going to list all the responses here. One of the core answers that come up constantly was about the fact there is too much information overload online. Close to 70% of the participants mentioned either information overload, too many product launches, focus, or not knowing what to do each day.

Many respondents talked about how complicated it was to find a good market for them to work in. This means that getting started and choosing the right market is a major sticking point for beginners.

In the question on other coaching programs, many people gave me highly detailed information even talking about specific programs they had been a member of. Let me show you an example of one that DOESN’T talk about someone else’s program (although it does praise one of my products).

“Workshops are great on the moment but it’s quite difficult to act upon it. I think One on one coaching is the best and that’s what I need to take off. The best experience I’ve had on-line learning was learning graphic design through pdf lessons and video then doing the assignments on time. I was not allowed to continue without doing the assignments. Then I had my assignments checked by a professional. It gave me confidence and finished my course on time. Most marketing type of e-learning leave people alone. Most people never practice what they learn. Getting feedback from an experienced marketer would help increasing confidence by achieving success through small steps. Thanks for the opportunity to ask for my opinion in this survey. I bought TRUTH-PRINTS recently and I can say that it’s the first time I listen to an audio marketing product many times !! Thanks for providing authenticity and value.”

This response was chosen because you can very specific suggestions were given about a program they liked. And of course they praised http://www.thetruthprints.com!

As I said I had many responses that were quite detailed like this. I just didn’t want to publicly show any of the ones that mentioned someone else’s coaching program/workshop by name (many did which of course helps me as well because I can understand where their response is coming from).

I have great customers…and they’re willing to jump in and provide information when I ask for help. Thank you again.

As you know I offer internet business coaching to help you earn more, work less, and enjoy life.

For the past year, my program has been full almost constantly. I get a cancellation now and then, but those slots are immediately taken by the email waiting list I have on the coaching page.

This means I’ve turned down many more clients than I’ve taken on over the past 10 months or so. One of my goals for the second half of this year is to change the coaching so I can help more clients get their businesses running online and improve the profits of their existing ones.

To do this is going to require a change in the format of how I do the coaching. Going forward I’m going to put together “coaching groups” and “coaching eclasses” designed to accomplish a specific goal in your business.

My current style of “open coaching” will only be available to those who already have profitable web businesses. After seeing the results of a couple of dozen clients, I can see how those who have businesses making money online and want to go to the next level make progress so much faster in this coaching model. They often increase profits by 25%, 50%, or even several hundred percent (a couple of clients have jumped by 5 to 10 times profits in just a few months).

Those who are brand new starting out do not see results this quick generally. Instead they need more hand holding and VERY SPECIFIC assignments to keep moving…the kind of assignments which work well in coaching groups (with homework and support on the assignments). I know this is what they need because I’ve done these types of groups very successfully in the past.

As I’m making this change I’m curious to see what is most important to you. What type of products and coaching do you need? What roadblocks are occurring in your business? Where do you need the most help?

The survey is now closed…

Anyone who fills out the survey will receive an audio interview Tim Gary did with me on “7 Keys to Online Profits.” This is one audio where I went indepth into the MINDSET issues that are holding many people back from success online. This covers the core trait you must have to succeed online. In addition, I talk about how to deal with fear and procrastination. We also talk about how to make progress toward your goals every single day.

This mp3 audio is your gift just for taking the time to fill out the survey…and letting me know exactly where you need the most help in your internet business.

Most business owners want all the above, but they don’t know how to get it.

The solution is simple. Write a book.

“Are you an author?”

If anyone asks you that question, they’re not expecting you to respond with all the ebooks you’ve written, the audios you’ve recorded, or your DVDs. They’re asking you if you’re written a physical print book they can carry off with them.

There is something about being an author that you can’t match with ebooks, audios, or DVDs. In fact I often ask people what’s the easiest way to be perceived as an expert on your topic.

It’s simple. Write the book. As soon as you have a book on the topic, you’re seen as the expert. Even if nobody ever reads the book, they still see you as the expert because you wrote it.

I’ve already published a couple of books, and I’m working on my next one this summer.

The question is, when will you do your first book?

First of all, let’s cover who SHOULDN’T write a book. Obviously it’s not for everyone.

First of all, DON’T write a book if you expect to become wealthy just selling your little book to the world. The authors who make a good living just from selling their books are few and far between. I definitely don’t! Not even close. For me, books are just a little stream of income.

They generate leads. They add more credibility to my business. But I’m glad I don’t have to live on the income generated from them!

This leads us to the second type of person who shouldn’t write a book. I would NOT write a book if you don’t have anything else to sell. You’re going to find the time invested in writing and promoting your book will not bring in a good hourly rate.

For those of us who have a successful business, if we relied on the book income alone, we would be losing money every minute we’re promoting our books.

So who should write a book? Well, if you’re an information producer, it’s an obvious front end lead generator. You write and promote your front end book to generate leads for all your other items (ebooks, audios, DVDs, coaching, etc.).

Let’s take a professional speaker. Who do you think is going to get higher paying speaking engagements…the author or the non-author (all other things being equal)? The author is. You’re the EXPERT because you have a book.

If you have ANY type of service business, you need a book. For example, let’s say you’re a real estate agent. Who do you think would get the listing if agent A was the normal agent while agent B also wrote the book, “How to Sell Your Home for Top Dollar in Today’s Economy?”

It again comes back to that credibility and perceived expertise. The author immediately receives more of both.

What if you’re not a writer? In fact, you hate writing. That doesn’t matter. It is not a reason to sit on the sidelines missing out on all the benefits of being an author. Even non-writers can get their book written and published quickly.

That’s the subject I’m covering in the June issue of the Monthly Mentor Club. On Wednesday the 10th at 9 AM Eastern Time I’m sending out this month’s issue to all my subscribers. It covers a complete step-by-step system to help even non-writers get their first book written and published…instantly increasing their credibility, boosting their prices, and becoming a target for publicity.Join the Monthly Mentor Club here…

In this issue I cover:

– How to create your book strategy (the end goal of your book and how it increases your sales from everything else you offer).

– 2 Methods of quickly and easily outlining your book.

– 3 Strategies even NON-writers can use to produce an excellent business building book.

– 3 Ways to give yourself a little kick in the butt to get the book done this week (these 3 strategies could be used for other projects as well).

– How to brainstorm and PROVE you have a winning title before you publish the book.

– A discussion on the top print-on-demand publishers and how to choose the right one for your book today (depending on your goals).

A book can be used to increase the profits of anyone in business today. This issue covers step-by-step how to create the ideas, write the outline, produce the book, and get it published.

Here is a feature article from Nick Bokhonok who has been creating web projects, Internet marketing and SEO tools since 2000. His expertise is helping people generate good quality backlinks to their site…which is an absolute requirement for getting top search engine rankings in competitive phrases.

In December 2008 Nick released Free Traffic System – free community where bloggers can build backlinks, get free content and push their sites to top pages in search engines. Because of the value provided, this community has grown to over 10,000 members in this short period!

Here’s Nick…

Today the owners of online businesses are even more serious about their fight for the targeted visitors. That is why they resort to the help of SEO companies whose job is to push a site to the top positions in search engines, and thus generate targeted traffic for their clients.

Though there is no global conspiracy about SEO services trying to cheat you, still you must be practical and understand that there is always a high probability of many SEO services to do a low value job and sell it to you as a high value job.

But if you are armed with proper knowledge about WHAT EXACTLY stands behind each type of SEO job in the overall package, it will be a lot more difficult to cheat you and sell you a lesser value as a higher value. That is why in this situation it is obvious that…

Your Knowledge = Maximum Effect from the Money You Pay for SEO

So, this 2-part article has the aim to explain you:
(1) What types of SEO jobs can be sold by SEO services
(2) What exactly is each job about
(3) How it should be done properly
(4) How SEO services can dodge to do it at the best level (still charging you for a top quality level).

These services can be sold separately or in one package. Surely it is better if you get all the parts of the SEO puzzle together and have all these services done – because, for example, keyword research is nothing without link building.

But that does not mean you need to hire one company to do all that. For example, if you see that company A has great prices for keyword research, and company B has a better price for link building, then nothing can stop you from paying company A for the research of the great keywords, and then use the keywords found by company A for link building at company B.

So, let’s get back discussing typical SEO services, how they should be done and how SEO companies can try to cheat their clients.

(1) Keyword Research – Quality Standards and Typical Traps

The aim of the keyword research is to give you the keywords for which your site should get page 1 in search engines, receive targeted traffic and convert into profits.

(a) What will be used as a source of information about keywords.

Surely SEO services are not taking from the sky the information about how many times a specific keyword is searched every day/month. They take this info from other services, and this is where you can get into problems.

Who can show you the best information about how many times keyword “make money” or “weight loss” was searched last month? Surely top search engines, like Google or Yahoo.

Unfortunately some SEO services up to now keep using minor search engines as their source of statistics about searches. And this is a problem for you, because tiny search engines do not represent the real picture of search demand. It’s the same to going to a local grocery store in your neighborhood, asking 10 people about their tastes for some specific product and then assuming that the GLOBAL response to the product is going to be the same.

So, if some minor meta search engine shows that “make money” is being searched 2 times more than “save money”, this does not mean that the true picture of global search demand is like this. Only the majors can show you the real info.

That is why my personal advice you is the following – demand that SEO service uses official Google keyword tool when researching keywords for you.

Once again, this is my personal opinion, but this opinion is backed up by years of experience and simple logics – “Who can show better results for the search demand? Who sees a bigger picture? Top search engine of the world – Google!” If the research is done on the Google tool, you will see a bigger picture of interest for specific keywords, and this is important for your business.
(b) *Golden* keywords vs all other keywords.

Ideal keyword research is about finding *golden* keywords for you. *Golden* keywords is not an official term, this is how I personally call them and these are the keywords which have:

Why is that so important to have keywords with nice demand and lower competition? Because with these keywords you can get to page 1 faster and get traffic faster.

But finding this type of keywords is about extra efforts (manual efforts), that is why SEO service can try to give you one of the 2 bad options which are a lot simpler for them.

Option #1 – Keywords with high search demand AND high link building competition. They can tell you “Look how many people search for that keyword! Just imagine how much traffic you gonna get if you receive top position for this keyword!!”

What they do not say is that you need to do a HUGE link building job to get page 1 for difficult keyword. Dozens of thousands of backlinks, or even hundreds of thousands. This will take much time (if you are doing link building yourself) or big money (if you are paying for link).

By the way, as many SEO services also do the link building, it is in their interest to hook you for the tough keywords, because then you will need to pay them very big money for link building.

Option #2 – Keywords with small search demand AND small link building competition. Though it looks that this option is more fair, still this is also a SEO trick.

Yes, for the keywords with small link building competition you get page 1 (provided you do link building properly) a lot faster. And psychologically a client feels great “Wow, I am page 1! Let’s celebrate – time for a party!”

But then you see that the traffic is really small, and it was almost pointless to build backlinks for that tiny number of searches.

Now you understand why the *golden keywords* – with nice stable search demand and low link building competition – are the only ones really worth paying for. All the rest is not playing into your favor.

By the way, I have been talking a lot about link building competition. For those who do not know how to check it – this is simple.

Type into Google search field inanchor:”your keyword here”, like on the screenshot below:

In this example I was searching how many sites are building backlinks for “make money online”, and you can see that Google shows 13,900,000 web pages which are fighting for this very keywords and build backlinks for it.

My personal experience shows that if the number of sites which fight for the keyword is under 1,000, then this competition is really doable within quite a short period of time. Surely my Free Traffic System clients have been taking even a lot tougher keywords, but with tougher keywords you must be prepared for serious link building.

It is not bad if keyword research also offers some stats about intitle (which explains how many pages have a keyword in their title) or exact match (which shows pages having the phrase somewhere on the page, with exact quote to your search). But these factors are not decisive with link building, that is why demand that you see inanchor info for any of the keywords you get, and intitle or exact match are not that important.

(c) How many keywords you will get and of what quality.

Another thing you should ask before paying for keyword research is how many keywords you will get.

BUT, don’t let them lure you into the game of fancy numbers. They can tell you “150 keywords per niche” and this seems to be great.

However this has great number of 150 words has nothing to do with quality. They will simply use the general word from your niche (for example, “gardening”), then they will run Google tool to show all keywords it sees for this niche (usually up to 150 words, but can be more) and will add some stats, like maybe inanchor.

First of all, this keyword research job with 150 words that I described above is automatic. SEO service can charge you $100+ for such a list in every niche, but in reality they are using automatic solutions which you can buy for several dozens of dollars and use lifetime.

So SEO service can try to sell this automatic job which is done by a 3rd party solution as their own handmade job. And you will need to pay $100 or more per each niche. Just imagine how much money you can lose from your pocket.

And – this is very important – this has nothing to do with spotting real *golden* keywords for you. Having even the list of 1,000 keywords, without direct pointing to the *golden* keywords is of almost no practical value for you.

You should have at least 2-3 *golden*keywords being explicitly indicated as a result of the keyword research work.

(d) Sorting out the crazy keywords from the list.

This is a very peculiar subject of keyword research. The problem is that even the best keyword research tools, like Google adwords tool or others, from time to time show keywords in a strange way – with wrong grammar and/or lack of sense.

Yes, people in the Internet do not always care about grammar when searching for something, and Google tool has the right to show it. Still, for the unexplainable reason Google keyword tool and many other tools show very strange searches that are not likely to be done by real people. No matter how bad their grammar is.

Professional keyword researchers should always sort out their list and take these “crazy” keywords out of the list. Otherwise, by mistake, you can focus your link building efforts on one of these keywords and waste your time and money.

Make sure you ask your keyword research service to take away these crazy keywords from your list.

Summary.

Keyword research plays a vital role in your SEO, because this is where everything about SEO starts. If you pick the right keywords and boost them up with nice link building and onpage optimization – you will get great traffic. If you get bad keywords – all your SEO efforts can get wasted.

Now that you know what stands behind a quality keyword research, you know what to ask before paying the money.

The rest of the tips in the upcoming publication on Terry Dean’s blog.

In the Part 2 of this publication you will read how to make sure SEO services give you maximum quality with onpage optimization and offpage optimization (link building).

One of my interns recently finished the program and sent me an incredible article of what he had learned during the time he was an intern.

After looking over the 12 keys he said he learned, I asked him if I could publish this for you…and he agreed. I wanted you to have these to print out BECAUSE it isn’t just about being an intern. These 12 keys apply to all of your internet business. They’re 12 lessons everyone needs to learn to be successful online (the only thing I changed in this article was an adjustment to the title – everything else is directly from him).

“12 Keys I Learned As An Intern”

By Shaun O’Reilly
AKA “Shaun van Hart”

Lesson # 1: The Internet is Primarily a Keyword-Driven Medium

Only create content for subjects that people are ALREADY searching for. Find out what people are already looking for by thorough keyword research. My own thoughts are that the keyword tools are like a mind reading device that allow you to really get inside the mind of your prospects to find out what they are looking for so you can give it to them. The main lesson is that if people aren’t already searching using keyword phrases on the subject then DON’T waste your time producing any content for that area.

Lesson # 2: The Incredible Power of Affiliate and JV Relationships

Invest a lot of time in developing strong relationships with active affiliates who can make a lot of sales for your business. Leverage the time, money and effort of affiliates to produce more sales with less time, money and effort on your part.

Before doing the Intern Program, I had negative feelings toward affiliate programs mainly due to my past experiences with the Internet Marketing pimp-a-product approach of many affiliates in this market. They don’t seem to care if the product will really help the most important person of all – the end customer.

I now realize that I can use affiliate programs, affiliates and JV partners in an ethical way on my terms. Not all affiliates are bad!

Lesson # 3: The Importance of Having a Consistent Daily Habit of Promoting Your Internet Business

Rather than having a haphazard approach to marketing your Internet business it’s vital to have a daily discipline and routine of promoting your Internet business every day. In fact, it’s important to have a strategic marketing plan for promoting your business via multiple channels on a regular basis.

I’ve learned that promotion is not a bad word and is a way of letting others know how you can help them. If I don’t promote my Internet business on a daily basis then I’ll not reach and impact as many people as I want to.

Lesson # 4: Go Where the Highest Traffic Is to Leverage Your Time, Money and Effort

Strategically select the highest traffic sites in your niche so that you can get the biggest ROI on any time, money and effort you put into your Internet business. Use Alexa and other tools to determine where the most traffic is and focus your time, money and effort on those sites. This reminds me of the 80/20 Rule and the importance of investing my time, money and effort wisely.

Lesson # 5: There Are No Magic Buttons for Internet Success

Quit looking for magic bullets and allowing the guru cartel to distract you into buying the latest ‘must-have’ product on the Internet. Get real and get into action doing the things that will grow your Internet business and focus on the fundamentals and things that work instead of being distracted by the latest trend and fad.

Lesson # 6: Copy is King on the Internet so Constantly Test to Maximize ROI

The words and images on a web page greatly affect conversions so constantly test and track the most important elements such as headline, first paragraph, photo, caption, call to action, etc. Focus especially on headlines and sub-headlines to maximize the number of people who read your whole message and act on it.

Lesson # 7: Multi-Purpose Your Content Into Different Forms to Get the Most Return from Every Word You Write

Rather than just producing content in one format look for multiple ways to re-purpose the same content many, many times. This will maximize the exposure and returns you get from every piece of content you take the time, money and effort to create.

Videos are a quick and easy way to create content and have a high perceived value too.

Lesson # 8: The Internet is Now a Social and Highly Interactive Medium – Get Involved

The Internet has now evolved into a more interactive media with social bookmarking sites and the growth of Web 2.0. Therefore, it’s vital to grow along with the trends and use the new Web 2.0 sites to reach people who they prefer to communicate and interact with them where they are.

Before the Intern Program, I was mildly interested in Web 2.0 and saw it as more of a fad. Now I see that it is vital to follow the trends and use them effectively to grow my Internet business.

Lesson # 9: Think Strategically & Look for Leverage Everywhere

Before taking action in your Internet business make sure that it makes the best use of any time, money and effort you invest. Look for ways that you can get other people or software to do things for you so you can focus your time on marketing and growing your Internet business.

Before this program, I allocated my time poorly, haphazardly and un-strategically. Now I think before I choose the actions I take and which ones I’ll choose to do and which ones I’ll outsource to others. I’m developing some routines and systems to be able to use my time more effectively.

Lesson # 10: A Life-Changing Product Focuses on Small and Significant Action Steps

The Intern Program has been a great demonstration of how to get people to take small but significant action steps to build a successful Internet business and actually DO something with the information instead of just learning it. Why aren’t more information products structured like this?

Lesson # 11: Find a Successful Internet Business and Model Them

Watch what successful Internet business owners do and observe what they actually DO versus what they tell or sell you to do. Follow the changes they make and study their processes to use them as a model in your own Internet business.

Before the Intern Program, I was dipping into different models from various Internet marketers and allowing myself to be pulled in multiple different directions. Now, I’ll save a lot of time, money and effort by focusing on the methods of a small number of Internet marketers that I respect and whose marketing methods I resonate with. This will minimize distractions and give me more time to work on building my own Internet business instead of somebody else’s. Success leaves clues.

Most information products in the Internet Marketing niche focus on educating you and giving you just more information. However, by actively participating full out in the Intern Program and DOING each and every assignment, I was able to actually experience the theory in action and see the results of my work directly and it became more visceral. So, get involved in the material you learn and look to apply everything useful that you learn so you can really turn the information into real knowledge and results.